PSG Planning To Be The Biggest Club In The World

byDavidonNovember 8, 2013

According to Le Parisien, Paris Saint-Germain want to have more revenue than any club in the world by the 2016-17 season.

The Paris newspaper has obtained a confidential document written for PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi in June of last year which lays out the Ligue 1 champions’ plans to push their budget beyond all their European rivals.

Before Qatar Sports Investments bought PSG, the club’s revenue was only €93.9 million in the 2010-11 season. By the 2016-17 season, PSG are projecting revenues of €540 million. That would put the French champions ahead of Real Madrid €515 million, Manchester United €510 million and Barcelona €508 million.

This season PSG is projecting revenues of €430 million, largely due to a Qatar Sports Investments €150 million-a-year sponsorship with the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

The document projects increasing income from TV rights €90 million, which breaks down to €50 million from domestic rights and €40 million from Champions League. To hit that, PSG needs to reach the at least the Champions League quarterfinals each season, which should be attainable with their squad and spending power.

While much of the criticism of PSG’s spending has been attached to that unprecedented partnership with the QTA, you cannot discount the way that PSG’s owners have grown the other revenue streams of the club.

They have a new deal with kit suppliers Nike and shirt sponsors Emirates that begins next July that is worth a combined €50 million a year. Qatari mobile phone operator Ooredoo is paying €13 million for naming rights of the club’s training ground.

A third club shop in central Paris, located near the French capital’s opera house, as well as further outlets in train stations, airports and shopping centres in the Greater Paris region, is expected to more than double merchandising revenue from last season’s €20 million to over €49 million by 2016.

Success on the pitch has translated to more fans attending games and PSG has more than 33,500 season-ticket holders now. Renovations ahead of Euro 2016 will increase the number of VIP places available from 2000 to 4500, bringing the club an estimated €seventy eight million from ticket sales come the 2016-17 season. To out that number is perspective, from 2006 to 2011, PSG averaged just under €20 million a year from ticket sales.

I don’t expect UEFA to have any problems ratifying the QTA deal and say that PSG is meeting their Financial Fair Play guidelines. The team is growing revenues in all three areas (match day, media rights and commercial) and are becoming the financial juggernaught that everyone feared when Qatar Sports Investments bought them.